Youth to inspire direction of COGG

GMHBA Stadium will be abuzz with the ingenuity of young minds this month as millennials from across the region gather for this year’s Geelong Youth Summit.

Hosted by the Greater Geelong Youth Council, the summit will be held at GMHBA Stadium on October 31 and use design thinking to tackle the council’s three priority areas: mental health and wellbeing, community safety and the environment.

Young people will receive information from experts in each field before participating in a design thinking process where they will unpack the issues at a local level.

Junior mayor Josie Horne said the summit will be a casual, interactive and fun event for Geelong’s young people.

“The Youth Summit will be an exciting new event for Geelong’s young people: a place in which they can raise issues that concern them and work together with other young people to find solutions which the Youth Council can recommend during our next presentation to council,” she said.

“We invite all young people from around Geelong to participate, they will have a chill time, meet new people and be empowered to help solve some important worldly problems we have in our own backyard.”

She also said the summit has been planned to be as interactive as it is hands-on, allowing attendees to think creatively, exchange ideas and speak openly without judgement.

Participants will be split into 12 working groups, which will each examine a specific aspect of one of the three priority issues.

Former Geelong mayor Bruce Harwood said the Youth Summit would serve as a chance for youth councillors to gauge what the young people of the region are thinking and feeling, particularly about contentious topics including climate change, mental health and community safety.

Ideas gathered over the course of the day will assist the youth council in making recommendations to the City of Greater Geelong.

Schools from across the region will be invited to nominate students to attend. The summit is open to young people between the ages of 12 and 17.

Schools interested in participating can contact Blake Edwards on 5272 4558 or [email protected].